News

People in the Burlington area now have better access to frontline health care with the expansion of the Caroline Family Health Team. This was today's announcement from Minister of Health and Long-Term Care Deb Matthews. “The newly expanded Caroline Family Health Team will provide increased access to care for more than 21,000 people within the next five months.

Deb Matthews, Minister of Health and Long-Term Care visited Omemee to announce the opening of the new City of Kawartha Lakes Family Health Team. “The City of Kawartha Lakes Family Health Team will be able to provide increased access to care for over 38,000 people within the next five months.

Family Health Teams from Wave 4 are beginning to move into the "fully operational" stage of their development.  Health Minister Deb Matthews visited Wise Elephant FHT in Brampton to celebrate its opening with lead physician Dr. Sanjeev Goel and staff.  One of Dr. Goel's long-time patients enthused about how the practice has grown into a "one-stop shop" for meeting his health care needs. “The Wise Elephant Downtown Brampton Family Health Team will be able to provide increased access to care for over 9,000 people within the next five months.

Minister of Health and Long-Term Care Deb Matthews congratulated lead physician Dr. Joseph Lee and the staff of Kitchener's Centre for Family Medicine Family Health Team for having enrolled more patients than originally planned, including over 5000 who were previously unattached.  She said, “It’s a shining example of what family health teams are all about.”  The Health Minister used the occasion to announce that Ontario has helped one million more people find a family doctor since 2003.

The Maitland Valley Family Health Team is hosting  a day of networking, information sharing and professional development.  Learn what your colleagues are doing across the province.  Click FHT Conference Registration Form for more information and to register for the workshop. When: Friday, October 22, 2010 Where: The Festival Inn, 1144 Ontario Street, Stratford, Ontario Fee: $50; $25 for students

One of the top concerns identified by Family Health Teams was the gap between the benefits package available through FHT funding, and that offered elsewhere in the health care system.  To help FHTs attract and retain skilled healthcare workers, AFHTO has been working with HOOPP, the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan to address the pension gap.  HOOP has been collecting the data needed to for us to move forward on pension discussions with the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.

The Hamilton FHT has developed a memo on the Safety Engineered Medical Sharps (SEMS) that is now legislated for use as of June 2010. Click SEMS Memo - June 2010 to learn more.

New Vision Family Health Team is a busy primary care practice in Kitchener, Ontario. On average, outcomes for patients in the practice who had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes were not meeting clinical best practice guidelines. The team realized it needed to redesign its chronic disease management system to improve care for these patients.

The Athens District Family Health Team (FHT), located within the South East LHIN, serves 3,500 rostered and 300 unrostered patients. In November 2008, the team was experiencing a wait time of 27 days, as measured by the time to the third next available appointment. As a result, the registered nurse had to do telephone triage to fit patients into an already doublebooked schedule or offer telephone advice.

With the goal of maximizing the purchasing power of FHTs regardless of their size or location, AFHTO established a Commercial Advisory Council (CAC).  An AFHTO survey had found that FHTs were interested in accessing a range of quality goods and services at discounted prices and/or with other benefits. CAC's role has been to develop a fair and transparent process for working with vendors in order to make recommendations to the AFHTO board on establishing contractual arrangements with suppliers of goods and services at discounted rates and/or with other benefits for AFHTO members.